"At each flash of lightning not only the Milky Way but the bright stars also disappeared, but as soon as the lightning died out they reappeared in the same places, as if thrown by some unerring hand."

"Levin had long before made the observation that when one is uncomfortable with people from their being excessively amenable and meek, one is apt very soon after to find things intolerable from their touchiness and irritability."

"A true work of art is the revelation of a new conception of life arising in the artist's soul, which, when expressed, lights up the path along with humanity progresses"

"It's not enough that i know all that's in me, everyone else must know it, too: Pierre, and that girl who wanted to fly into the sky, everyone must know me, so that my life is not only for myself; so that they don't live like that girl, independently of my life, but so that it is reflected in everyone, and they all live together with me!"

"Hard as Stepan Arkadyich tried to be a solicitous father and husband, he never could remember that he had a wife and children."

"She lay for a long time motionless, her eyes open, and it seemed to her that she herself could see them shining in the darkness."

"As a result, everything became confused in higher spheres and even in society, and, despite great interest on everyone's part, no one could make out whether the minorities were flourishing or were actually in need and perishing."

"Everything was made bright by her. She was the smile that shed light all around her."

"And so there was no single cause for war, but it happened simply because it had to happen"

"Art is the uniting of the subjective with the objective,of nature with reason, of the unconscious with the conscious, and therefore art is the highest means of knowledge."